The Impeachers

by Brenda Wineapple

  “then we shall know what his opinions”: Manton Marble to James Doolittle, Dec. 29, 1867, WHS.

  The President of the United States: for the written correspondence between Johnson and Grant, Jan. 25, 1868–January 30, 1868, see for instance PUSG 18: 113–22.

  “Where my honor…disobey”: USG to AJ, Feb. 3, 1868, PUSG 18: 126.

  “In a question of veracity between a soldier”: “The Situation,” New-York Tribune, Jan. 17, 1868, p. 4. Even those papers partial to Johnson’s interpretation of events, like Henry Raymond’s New York Times, conceded that while the President had “the best of the case,” General Grant was far more credible; and while the President had responded to Grant with dignity, he should never have been drawn into an ugly public spat in the first place. See New York Times, Feb. 15, 1868.

  Johnson’s cabinet: see “Notes of Colonel W. G. Moore,” Feb. 4, 1868, p. 118.

  “seem thoroughly waked up & full of fight.”: Walt Whitman to his mother, Jan. 26, 1868, quoted in Correspondence, vol. 2, p. 14.

  “Congress is on its mettle,”: Twain, “The Political Stink Pots Opened,” Jan. 11, 1868, Territorial Enterprise, February 18, 1868, quoted in Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.

  The other six men: John Bingham, Beaman, Paine, Hubburd, Brooks, and Beach.

  “Died: In this city, Feb. 13, at his lodgings in the chamber of the House”: “Mark Twain’s Letter,” Chicago Republican, Feb. 19, 1868, p. 3.

  “the finest word”: Twain, “Letter from Washington,” February 19, 1868, Territorial Enterprise, March 7, 1868, quoted in Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.

  “What the devil do I care”: see “Impeachment Dead,” New-York Tribune, Feb. 14, p. 1.; see also “Washington; New York; Mr. Thaddeus Stevens; U. S. Grant; Mr. Bingham,” Boston Daily Advertiser, Feb. 15, 1868, p. 2.

  “The Senate had confirmed…what does?”: see Norwich Aurora, Feb. 18, 1868; “Impeachment Dead,” New-York Tribune, Feb. 14, p. 1.; see also “Washington; New York; Mr. Thaddeus; Stevens; U. S. Grant; Mr. Bingham,” Boston Daily Advertiser, Feb. 15, 1868, p. 2; “Impeachment Proceedings,” Daily National Intelligencer, Feb. 15, 1868, p. 2.

  “There is no sense making ourselves ridiculous before the country”: “Thad Forcibly Expresses Himself to Congressmen,” Boston Traveller, Feb. 14, 1868, p. 2.

  “If McCardle gains his case”: “Mark Twain’s Letter from Washington,” Jan. 11, 1868, in Territorial Enterprise, February 18, 1868, quoted in Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.

  “Well…let them go ahead.”: “A Talk with Andrew Johnson,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 15, 1868, p. 2.

  Not at all, Johnson happily answered, not at all: see Poore, “Washington News,” Harper’s Monthly, Jan. 1874, p. 234.

  “If this political atmosphere”: WTS to AJ, Jan. 31, 1868, quoted in Colonel W. G. Moore diary typescript, LC. p. 80–81.

  “I suppose that because…wilderness”: WTS to Thomas Ewing, Feb, 14, 1868, quoted in Home Letters, ed. Howe, p. 373.

  “the President would make use”: WTS to John Sherman, Feb. 14, 1868, quoted in Sherman Letters, ed. Thorndike, p. 305

  “Almost every positive affirmative step”: Jan. 18, 1868, Strong, The Diary of George Templeton Strong, vol. 4, p. 181.

  “If the people did not entertain sufficient”: “Notes of Colonel W. G. Moore,” Feb. 19, 1868, p. 130.

  “I have ever battled for the right”: Colonel W. G. Moore, Feb. 22, 1868, diary, LC.

  “Mr. President…means,”: Jerome Stillson to Samuel L. M. Barlow, Feb. 12, 1868, Barlow papers, Huntington.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: STRIKING AT A KING

  “He was a straw”: quoted in Burlingame and Ettlinger, ed., Inside Lincoln’s White House, p. 69.

  “I want some little time”: “Notes of Colonel W. G. Moore,” Feb. 21, 1868, pp. 121–22.

  “Didn’t I tell you so”: Feb. 28, 1868, quoted in Clemenceau, American Reconstruction, p. 153.

  “Stand up, impeachers!”: “The Political Crisis,” The Boston Daily Journal, Feb. 22, 1868, p. 4.

  “Stick!”: Charles Sumner to Edwin Stanton, Feb. 21, 1868, LC.

  “Resist force by force”: John M. Thayer to Edwin Stanton, Feb. 21, 1868, LC.

  he had too much: See Trial I, pp. 56, 74, 76.

  With a look of mock astonishment: Townsend, Anecdotes, pp. 127–28.

  “When you strike at a king”: quoted in Holmes, Emerson, p. 74.

  Former ambassador John Bigelow: Feb. 21, 1868, Bigelow, Retrospections, vol. 4, p. 154.

  “I know they are capable…care”: the remarks were widely reported. See for example, “The War Office Struggle,” Albany Evening Journal, Feb. 22, 1868, p. 22; “Washington,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Feb. 24, 1868, p. 3; “From Washington,” Feb. 27, 1868, Richmond Whig, p. 2; “The President, Stanton, and Congress,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, Feb. 26, 1868, p. 1.

  “The President called upon the lightning,”: February 28, 1868, in Clemenceau, American Reconstruction, p. 151.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: IMPEACHMENT

  Newspaper boys: see “The Terrors of Congress,” New York Herald, Feb. 25, 1868, p. 3.

  “There are men in Washington”: Mark Twain, “Letters from Washington,” March 20, 1868, Territorial Enterprise, April 7, 1868, p. 1, quoted in Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.

  “I recall nothing like it for size or eagerness”: “The War Office Imbroglio,” Boston Daily Advertiser, Feb. 24, 1868, p. 1.

  “first rate, first rate”: Ibid.

  “There was a soul in”: Twain, “Mark Twain’s Letter from Washington: The Grand Coup D’État,” Feb. 22, 1868,” Territorial Enterprise, March 13, 1868, p. 1, quoted in Mark Twain Newspaper Correspondent.

  James Doolittle begged: see Colonel W. G. Moore, diary, Feb. 24, 1868, LC.

  “Johnson acts like a man”: Edwards Pierrepont to John A. Dix, Feb. 25, 1868, Butler.

  “The papers talk about me”: “The President His Own Advisor,” Boston Daily Advertiser, Feb. 26, 1868, p. 1.

  After all, Mr. Stanton should have been removed: see “The President and His Cabinet,” New York World, Feb. 26, 1868.

  “He aims now”: Edwards Pierrepont to John A. Dix, Feb. 25, 1868, Butler.

  Best that the Democratic party: see “The Presidency,” New York Herald, Feb. 23, 1868, p. 10.

  “to tie themselves to a corpse”: “The Crisis at Washington,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 25, 1868, p. 1.

  “He swore that his course ought to have been plain enough,”: Jerome Stillson to Samuel L. M. Barlow, Feb 25, 1868, Barlow papers, Huntington.

  “Too late, Mr. President,”: New-York Tribune, Feb. 24, 1868, p. 4.

  “Johnson is like a blind man reaching out in every direction for something to take hold of,”: quoted in Napton, The Union on Trial, p. 304.

  “Nearly the entire loyal”: Edwards Pierrepont to John Dix, Feb. 25, 1868, Butler.

  “The truest portion of the Republican Party”: J. G. Jackson to Thaddeus Stevens, March 2, 1868, LC.

  “as American citizens,”: Charles C. Cotton to BB, April 10, 1868, LC.

  “Andrew Johnson deserves impeachment,”: “The State of the Country, The Elevator, March 13, 1868, p. 2.

  “The bloody and untilled fields of the ten unreconstructed States,”: CG 40: 2, Feb. 22, 1868, p. 1348.

  “ought to be removed,” Francis Pierpont to William Willey”: Sept. 11, 1867, quoted in Trefousse, The Impeachment of a President, p. 142.

  “I think we have ‘caught the rat’ ”: John Logan to Phillips March 4, 1868, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

  “Sound the tocsin,”: Mark Twain, “Mark Twain’s Letter, Feb. 24, 1868,” Chicago Republican, March 1, 1868, p. 1.

  “as President Johnson only has a short time to serve,�
�: Daniel Miller to WPF, March 21, 1868, Western Reserve Historical Society.

  “Either I am very stupid”: WPF to Elizabeth Warriner, Feb. 22, 1868, Bowdoin.

  “indecent eagerness…impeachers”: Charles Eliot Norton to E. L. Godkin, March 1, 1868, Houghton.

  “not a blunder, but a crime,”: Augusta Loyal Georgian, February 15, 1868, quoted in Egerton, The Wars of Reconstruction, p. 232.

  “If you do not crush Johnson”: John C. Binney to WPF, Feb. 21, 1868, Western Reserve Historical Society.

  “the removal of Andrew Johnson”: quoted in “Effect of Impeachment at the South, Charleston Free Press, April 5, 1867, p. 1.

  “By a final hasty move”: March 14, 1868, Welles, Diary, vol. 3, p. 315.

  “We have tolerated a Rebel”: [A. W. Luce] to Elihu Washburne, Feb. 24, 1868, LC.

  “scarlet cloak or a red rag”: Thomas Ewing to Hugh Ewing, Feb. 26, 1868, LC.

  Senator John Sherman: “The forcible removal of a man in office, claiming to be in lawfully,” Sherman told his brother, “is like the forcible ejection of a tenant when his right of possession is in dispute. It is a trespass, an assault, a riot, or a crime.”: see John Sherman to WTS, Feb. 23, 1868, quoted in Sherman, Recollections of Forty Years, vol. 1, p. 422.

  “I have been among those who have hesitated”: CG 40: 2, Feb. 22, 1868, p. 1337.

  “I stand here,”: quoted in Magliocca, American Founding Son, p. 143. See also CG 40: 2, Feb. 22, 1868, p. 1340.

  “Andrew Johnson, in my judgement”: CG 40: 2, Feb. 24, 1868, p. 1390.

  Ben Butler: see CG 40: 2, Feb. 24, 1868, p. 1393.

  The House Democrats: see CG 40: 2, Feb. 24, 1868, p. 1397.

  “The President has openly and clearly”: CG 40: 2, Feb. 22, 1868, p. 1368.

  “his individuality into that official”: CG 40: 2, Feb. 24, 1868, p. 1347.

  “The framers of our Constitution did not rely”: CG 40: 2, Feb. 24, 1868, pp. 1399–1400.

  “out of the midst”: Mark Twain, “Mark Twain’s Letter,” Chicago Republican, March 1, 1868, p. 1.

  “The man who was inaugurated in drunkeness”: HCB, The “Irrepressible Conflict” in Washington, The Independent, Feb. 27, 1868, p. 4.

  “impeachment is peace…process of law”: “Impeachment Is Peace,” New-York Tribune, Feb. 26, 1868, p. 4.

  “the committee are likely to present”: Thaddeus Stevens to BB, Feb. 28, 1868, Butler papers, LC.

  “I do not care…unfitted you for your office,”: “Impeachment: Lecture by Wendell Phillips” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, March 3, 1868, p. 2.

  “one of the greatest criminal lawyers in the country and Johnson one of the greatest criminals,”: “Washington,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, March 2, 1868, p. 3.

  “I’ll be damned if I serve under Butler,”: “Washington,” New York Herald, March 3, 1868, p. 3.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE HIGH COURT OF IMPEACHMENT

  “Senators,”: see The Great Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson, p. 23.

  “Chf. Ju. Chase to many”: John A. Logan to Wendell Phillips, March 4, 1868, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

  Chase considered: see Chase’s remark in Hunt, “The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson,” p. 429.

  Frederick Douglass distrusted: see Frederick Douglass, “Salmon P. Chase,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, July 18, 1868, p. 3.

  “bad egg”: Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, vol. 5, p. 287.

  “He feels, I believe”: Moorfield Storey to his mother, Jan. 8, 1868, in Howe, Portrait of an Independent, p. 52.

  “I foresee”: John A. Logan to Wendell Phillips, March 4, 1868, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

  Whether true or not: see D. Richards to Elihu Washburne, Jan. 14, 1868, LC.

  “The Radicals denounce him”: George T. Curtis to Samuel Barlow, March 4, 1868, Barlow papers, Huntington.

  Increasingly, he did know: see “The Chief Justice seems inclined to throw what influence he has against the impeachment”: Moorfield Storey to father, March 17, 1868, quoted in Howe, Portrait of an Independent, p. 78.

  “I remembered his loyalty at the outset of the war”: Salmon Chase to J. E. Snodgrass, March 16, 1868, quoted in Warden, An Account, p. 682.

  Basically, Chase had won: a good overview of the role Chase played in the trial is Kathleen Perdue, “Salmon P. Chase and the Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson,” pp. 75–92.

  “Three months”: Charles Eliot Norton to E. L. Godkin, March 1, 1868, Houghton.

  “ ‘Conviction means a transfer”: James Garfield to Harry Rhodes, May 7, 1868, quoted in Garfield, Life and Letters, vol. 1, p. 425.

  “built for use instead of ornament.”: Briggs, The Olivia Letters, p. 67.

  Unlike Charles Sumner: see Eckloff, Memoirs of a Senate Page, p. 130.

  “a certain bulldog obduracy truly masterful”: Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, p. 26.

  “I did not do it because they are women”: Briggs, The Olivia Letters, p. 67.

  “That vicious”: “Conservatives in Charlottesville,” New York Herald, June 21, 1867, p. 1.

  “If he is a good friend”: Ellis, The Sights and Secrets in the National Capital, p. 124.

  “rose-water war”: CG, 37: 2, Jan. 21, 1862, p. 511.

  “after the abolition of slavery”: see Marx, Capital, vol. 1, p. xx.

  “Machiavelli, Munchausen, and Miss Nancy”: see for instance Trefousse, Benjamin Franklin Wade, pp. 288–90. See also DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America, pp. 201–03.

  “He is therefore the kind of a man”: “Senator Wade,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, April 14, 1868, p. 2.

  “cheek by jowl”: “The Hon. ‘Ben Wade’ as president pro tem of the United States,” New York Herald, March 10, 1878, p. 6.

  “thought every republican senator hated him,”: quoted in J. B. McCullagh, “The Great Impeachment,” The Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 7, 1875, p. 2.

  “They say the city is full of rebels”: Moorfield Storey to his sister, March 10, 1868, quoted in Howe, Portrait of an Independent, pp. 77–78.

  “Give Andy enough rope and he will hang himself and his friends”: see also “Notes at the Capitol,” National Intelligencer, March 2, 1868, p. 2.

  “The Hon. Mr. Wiseacre”: June 17, 1867, quoted in Robinson, Warrington, p. 315.

  Composed: see for instance J. B. McCullagh, “The Great Impeachment,” The Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 7, 1875, p. 2.

  “these damned scoundrels,”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER TWENTY: ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN

  Curtis resigned: see Winthrop, Jr., A Memoir of Robert C. Winthrop, p. 198.

  “a person of no practical power, or ability, a declaimer, and rather sophomorically at that,”: Benjamin R. Curtis to George Ticknor, Feb. 29, 1852, LC, quoted in Leach, “Benjamin R. Curtis: Judicial Misfit,” p. 516.

  “He is a man of few ideas”: Benjamin R. Curtis to George Ticknor, April 19, 1868, quoted in Curtis, A Memoir of Benjamin Robbins Curtis, vol. 1, p. 417.

  “that in the intense excitement”: Robbins, A Memoir of Benjamin Robbins Curtis, p. 15.

  “services at the trial were wholly gratuitous”: Ibid.

  Each of Johnson’s defense lawyers: see “Henry Stanbery in account for defense of president in impeachment case,” May 15, 1868, Evarts papers, LC.

  “How would I feel after I bought it?”: Colonel William Moore diary typescript, Feb. 29, 1868, typescript, p. 104, LC.

  “with extreme caution”: Colonel William Moore diary, March 18, 1868, LC.

  “wit, diamond-pointed,”: quoted in Evarts, Arguments and Speeches of William Maxwell Evarts, vol. 1, p. xxi; “cut into a legal problem”: quoted in Barrows, William M. Evarts, p. 48.

  “confident in times of doubt”:
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., July 17, 1863, quoted in Henry Adams, Selected Letters, p. 58.

  “He undoubtedly represents”: Napton, The Union on Trial, p. 315.

  The moderates wanted to defeat impeachment: see for instance Charles Eliot Norton to E. L. Godkin, March 7, 1868, Houghton.

  Evarts, like Curtis, considered Andrew Johnson: see “Thoughts and Facts,” The Philadelphia Press, May 5, 1868, p. 4.

  “I pride myself on my success”: Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, p. 33.

  “ ‘Yes,’ said Mr. Evarts”: Moorfield Storey to his sister, April 6, 1868, in Howe, Portrait of an Independent, p. 91.

  “cold, calculating, selfish man”: March 9, 1868, Welles, Diary, vol. 3, p. 307.

  “I wonder why Mr. Evarts takes the case,”: Moorfield Storey to his father, March 17, 1868, in Howe, Portrait of an Independent, p. 78.

  “an economist of morals,”: Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, p. 141.

  After the trial: for other friends who were shocked Evarts defended Johnson, see the eminent jurist Ebenezer R. Hoar to William Evarts, July 18, 1868, quoted in Dyer, The Public Career of William Maxwell Evarts, p. 102: “Every criminal deserves the right to the aid of counsel on his trial, and if defended, to be ably defended. It is the right even of the thief and the counterfeiter,” Hoar told Evarts. “But when, after the acquittal, the grateful client invites his counsel to go into partnership with him, some other considerations seem to apply.”

  “Jeremiah S. Black in defense”: see DeWitt, The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson, p. 400.

  Black became a problem: on Jeremiah Black and Johnson: see Brigance, “Jeremiah Black and Andrew Johnson,” p. 209.

  Assuming that Johnson couldn’t: see “News from Washington,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2, 1868, p. 1.

  The Alta Vela matter: for the several versions of the story, see for instance “Mr. Johnson and His Counsel,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 20, 1868, p. 1; “Judge Black, Secretary Seward, and His Excellence,” New-York Tribune, March 28, 1868, p. 1. “Jere. Black Missing—A Guano Island and a Very Curious Case,” New York Herald, March 28, 1868, p. 3; for the direct quote, see [Emily Edson Briggs], “The Impeachment Trail: Scenes in the Senate,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 25, 1868, p. 3. Also see the comprehensive Brigance, “Jeremiah Black and Andrew Johnson,” pp. 205–18.